life on the island of Hönö

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Monthly Archives: January 2014

“Just going to the shops” turned into a two hour long walk. I thought I would take a walk over to Fotö(Foot island). It’s just next to Hönö but I rarely venture over the bridge, almost changed my mind halfway there, the icy wind on the bridge was excruciating. Passing the harbour I noticed a trail leading up over the cliffs and thought why not take a little detour? I ended up by the big lighthouses that I’ve only seen from a distance. I wish I’d gone there before! The lighthouses are very impressive up close. They don’t light up anymore and some people want them gone, to save the money it costs to keep them standing. If you’re in a boat and see the lighthouses lined up you’re on the right track.

Heading back I got lost. Getting lost at Fotö is quite an accomplishment, it’s such a small island. I could see the bridge and the road but every direction I started walking I ended up at a cliff or ice and snow. Not knowing what was under the ice and snow I didn’t want to take any chances and turned around. Getting extremely tired from the walking and the cold wind I started daydreaming about laying down in the snow, closing my eyes for a minute, what if I would never wake up? Decided ending my life at Fotö would be kind of sad and I would probably be missed if I didn’t come back with milk and tea bags. I ended up retracing my steps and dragging my feet over the bridge back to my own island. I will definitely return, with my real camera. Maybe I’ll even dare to climb the ladder.

I only had time for a quicky in the basement. Since most of my finished wet plate negatives were taken the last few days I opted for the Cyanotype process which added a nice wintery feel to them. I made some with the nice cool Cyanotype blue and some bleached back to change the tone. Because of Swedish winter, a must for printing old photographic processes is investing in some kind of UV source. I have an old face tanning bed. Although as tempting as it is with some extra sunshine, I don’t stand too near to it when printing.

Snow and sunshine here at last! Spent all day outdoors yesterday shooting wet plates. Well, shooting doesn’t actually sound like it goes with the wet plate process since it’s so slow. Exposures were around 10sek for my glass plate negatives. I will try to get them printed tonight, not to waste another lovely snowy day.

I take my last post back by the way, the chickens are pretty tough. I guess they are getting over the first chock of seeing and feeling snow. They were out there with me for quite some time. Hopping/flying around but still making that discontented purring noise.

I thought the hens weren’t scared of any weather. One could probably count the days they’ve stayed inside on one hands fingers. Even yesterday when the temperature dropped suddenly down to -9 degrees celsius they still ventured out. Then last night it finally snowed! When I opened the hatch this morning Buffy stuck her head out and made a noice I can’t explain, she ate some snow and carefully tried walking on it. It took at least five minutes before the others dared. They all flew up on the sitting stick and after about two minutes ran back inside. Now the cowards have stayed in the henhouse all day, muttering away and as to show their contempt, haven’t laid one egg yet today.

My seeds came with the post today! Started out planting all my chillies, three new types and some from last year. My favourite is Hot lemon, it goes very well with fish. Last year I had a seed and plant exchange day, a friend bought and swapped some chilli plants, later in summer her plants were trees! Mine were not higher than a couple of decimetres but this year I have chicken-shit! It will be very interesting to see what it does to the garden.

I’m glad I made the trip to the fish shop today. Not only because they always have the freshest fish and friendliest service but it gave me the answer to a question I’ve had for years, what’s wrong with Sej(Saithe)? Since my granddad was a fisherman my mother was brought up eating mainly fish. Naturally I ate a lot of fish growing up but my mum and the only fish my mum never bought was Sej. She never had a very good explanation for it, the best was -maybe because the meat is grey? One of the ladies who owns the fish shop in the harbour had a much more plausible answer. She had been told by a fisherman that it stems from way back when Sweden was at war with Norway. There was a lot of Sej/Saithe along the Norwegian coast so it was thought of as a Norwegian fish. The rivalry between the Swedes and Norwegians was so strong that if there was a storm and a ship had to go to shore in an emergency and they didn’t have the right currency they were refused help. So apparently it has nothing to do with colour of meat, taste or anything else. As she was tellin gem this story an old fisherman came in and the lady behind the counter asked isn’t it so? About the Norwegians? He replied What? What? Norway? No the Norwegian girls are lovely!